Dreams and Reality
by Jenifer-and-Rose-rule
Summary: Harry had a strange dream of a mystery man the night after Halloween in POA. This is my first story and I am really bad at summaries. Very AU but not something that is completely improbable, more of a what if. NO SLASH. Its T just to be safe but may chang
1. Chapter 1: memories

**Disclamer: I don't own Harry Potter or any of it's charactors J.K. Rowling ( who is amazing) does. The Goddess Minerva owns all intelligence and God owns me.... so this isn't really mine... kinda... even the title isn't mine... It's my sister's... who wants me off the computer.... **

Dreams and Reality

**NOVEMBER 1, 1993 **

Harry had a thousand things running through his head. _What did Snape do to Lupin's potion? Was Snape making him sick? Where was Black? Why didn't he stay? Was he scared of Dumbledore, like Voldemort? Or was he scared away by sheer number?_

The dormitory door opened and Harry jumped.

"Are you okay, Harry?" Ron asked from the doorway.

" Yeah, you just scared me"

Ron walked over and sat on the edge of Harry's bed.

" Harry," he said hesitently," Harry, I understrand your worried, and that you're scared of Black, but you know you'll be fine. I mean, Dumbledore will protect you."

He sounded like he was trying to comcince himself more than Harry.

"It'll be fine, Ron," Harry replied.

"Okay," Ron said, relived, " I'm going to bed, night, Harry. Have Sirius Black-free dreams."

"'Night," Harry yawned. Then he turned over and fell asleep.

**------------------- DREAM ------------------**

_Harry was sitting in a highchair (which confused him as he was sure this was a memory,but the Dursleys never put him in highchairs) and playing with the remains of his oatmeal. He was in a beautiful kitchen that was clean but also cozy. At this point Harry relixed that he was remembering his parents' house and prayed in the back of his head that he stayed asleep for a little longer._

_ There were footsteps in the othe rroom and then a man walked into the kitchen. In the distance a door closed. The man was tall with elegant black hair that fell in his pale gray eyes. He had a handsome strong featured face and when he saw him, Harry felt joy rise inside of himself. _Do I know him?_ Harry thought._

_"Hi Harry!" He said in a voice so familiar to Harry that he wanted to shout for joy. _Why though? _Harry thought, _Who _is_he?

_The strange, yet farmiliar man walked over to Harry's high chair, pulled a chair from the table right in frount of it, and then sat down in frount of Harry. Harry noticed that the man's pale grey eyes were full of more humor and life than any he had seen, including Dumbledore's. The same strange feeling of recognization struck Harry again. He __knew__ those eyes. _

_" Wellllllllll, kiddo, guess what!" the man said, smiling joyfully. "Lily and James are out today so, I get to come over!" The man's eyes had lit with joy when he had said Harry's parents' names and it was easy to see that he absolutly loved them. " What do you want to do? Really, I'm so bored I could do anything! Fly on the motorbike, play with stuffed animals, tease the cat, hide-and-go-seek, burn down the house, really anything.......Just.....don't.........tell...... Lily....."_

_**----------------- REALITY------------------**_

BEEP! BEEP!

Harry woke up with a start. _Stupid alarm clock! _he thought. That had been the best dream Harry had ever had and he wouldn't have minded if it had lasted forever.

The dream rose so many questions. Harry knew it was a memory, he didn't know how but he did. _Who was that guy? Was he related to me? Where was he now? _The last question he wasn't sure he wanted answered. He was sure that the man was dead. This saddened him more than he could say but the alternitive was worse. That would be that he just didn't care about Harry. As these thought swirled around his head. Harry made up his mind that he would find that man, even if all he found was a grave stone.

Harry got up and dressed without talking to anyone and then he headed silently to the common room. Fred and George were talking in excited whispers to their best friend, Lee Jordan at the far corner table and Herminoe was throwing them suspicous looks from her chair in front of the fire. Harry walked up to her.

"I need some help," Harry told her.

"With what?" Hermione asked.

"I'll tell you when we get to the library." Harry replied.

Hermione gave Harry an odd look but didn't question him. They started to move toward the portrat hole when Ron saw them and decided to follow.

"Hey guys, what are you doing?" he asked.

"We're going to the library but I don't know why." Hermione answered.

"What?" Ron asked confused.

"Just come!" Harry said impatiantly.

"Okay, okay, we're coming, Harry." Hermione said exasperatedly.

They followed him down to the library. There were only six tables empty and the library was filled with students.

"They probably, don't want to be in the rest of the castel alone." Hermione said sadly.

" Why?" Harry asked.

"Because of Sirius Black." Hermione said.

Harry was momentarily stunned. He had been so caught up in the mystery man that he had completly forgotten about Black.

"Oh, yeah," He said. He sat down at a small table in a sucluded corner of the library. He turned to Hermione, " How do you find someone who's name you don't know?"

Hermione seemed thrown off by the question. " Who do you want to find?"

Harry Hesitated. _How should I tell her this so that she'll take me seriously? _" Well... Okay you guys have to listen to me. I had this dream but it was different from a normal dream and it was kind of a, ......well I think it was a memory." he paused to take in their looks of confusion. " There was this man in my dream and I have no idea who he is but I am absoultly sure I couldn't have dreamed him up and I need to find him."

"Wait, who is he?" Hermione asked.

"I think he was my parents' friend," Harry responded, "and I know what he looks like."

"Was there anything that might have gotten him in a book or newspaper?"

"He had to have been mentioned around the time my parent's died because he's probably dead."

"Why do you think that?" Ron asked.

"Well, wouldn't I have been raised by him and not the Dursleys if he was still alive?" Harry said omitting his earlier doubt. "He definitely wouldn't just abandon me."

Herminone walked over to the stack of old newspapers and started to shuffle through them. Ron and Harry followed suit.

" We have to find some newspapers dated around October 31, 1981." She told them.

**---------------------- --------------------- --------------------- --------------------- **

Sirius stared longingly at the castle through the trees. He was on the edge of the Forrbiden Forest, hidden by its shadowing depth. So close, Sirius thought, Why didn't the fat lady just let him in! He had been so mad when the fat lady hadn't let him in that he had lost control, He felt bad now but desperation cupled with the fact that it was Halloween had robbed him momentaraly of his senses.

He crept slowly back into the depths of the forest, thinking of Lily, James, Peter, and Remus; Thinking of everything that had gone wrong....


	2. Chapter 2: Dark Thoughts and Discoveries

**Disclamer: Well, if you are on this site you should already know that J.K. Rowling owns the world (well, she could if she asked all her fans to revoult; then we all would and we would DEFINATLY out number opision....) anyway, and Minerva owns all knowledge, but she has to share credit with Jenifer on this one because Jenifer is my Muse... and any humor is probly from her Best bud Rose.... God owns me.... And reveiwers are in control of how fast I update this... so, needless to say... I own nothing : ( **

**Rocklynn-Rosalie Thanx for the reveiw! It's my first ever review!!!! **

**Some of this story is written (along with about 6 other stories) in my writting notebook so I will most likely be updating more than one story at once but I will try to concentrate on the stories that get more reveiws.**

Dark Thoughts and Discoveries

**NOVEMBER 2, 1993**

Harry, Ron, and Hermione had spent hours skiming through the obituaries of old crumbly newspapers.

"We're never going to find him, Harry" Ron complained."Can't we just give up?"

"No he's got to be here somewhere," Harry replied. "I know he has to be."

"Let's bring some of there up to your dorm so you can look at them later." Hermione sugested indicating the small stack of papers that they hadn't gone through.

Harry nodded and watched as Hermione transfigured the stack to look like varioius text books. They walked back to Griffindor commmon room quickly, with Hermione shotting guilty, furtive looks over her shoulder. As they went Harry barely noticed the small groups of people clumpled together, talking in the halls. They were all anxious and scared. All he cared about was finding the identity of the mystery man.

When they got into the common room Harry went straight to his bed and started to untransfigure the nespapers. He spent all night looking through the remaining newspaper's obituraries. When the last one yeilded no results Harry threw the stack to the ground and then paced moodily around the empty dorm.

He felt a burning desire to find the mystery man. It simply didn't make sense that he hadn't died between 1980 and 1981. _Or had he not died at all? _A nagging voice whispered in the back of his head. _Did, or does, he just not care? _Harry thought about this for a few moments and them decided that that defenitly wasn't true. You just had to look in the man's eyes to see he cared a lot about Harry. Harry was sure it had to be something else. He racked his brain for another reason for the man's 12-year absence from his life.

_Maybe he moved to a sucluded place? No, he'd have come as soon as he found out about my parents. That wouldn't take 12 years, would it?...Maybe he didn't get custody of me?... No, he would have at least visited... wait... maybe.... _Harry bit his lip worriedly. He really didn't want to believe this option either but it made sense... _maybe he went missing and they didn't declare him dead until later... _after all Harry had only checked the obituraries, he hadn't even glanced at any of the front covers or the rest of the papers.... But that would mean it was almost definetly by followers of Voldemort.

Harry closed his eyes and tried to push away images of what they could have done to the light hearted man out of his mind. He hated Voldemort and all of his followers, more than he ever had. He especially hated Sirius Black because Voldemort had gotten punishment (though he still deserved worse) but Black was free now despite his stay in Azkaban. Harry fell asleep dwelling on revenge.

**------------------- DREAM ------------------**

_Harry was sitting on a deep red couch in the middle of a cozy sitting room. This time he knew right away that he was in his parents house. He looked around hoping to see his parents or the dark-haired man, of anyone really. He was dissapointed to find the room empty save a callico cat napping in a nearby arm chair. Harry sat and waited for something to happen (_well, _he suposed, _he couldn't do anything anyway seeing as this was a memory, but whatever_)._

_He didn't have to wait long however because there was the sound of a door opening from somewhere behind him and he heard people enter the room. Harry desperately wanted to know who but seeing as he wasn't in control here he would just have to hope that the baby version of him would also be curious._

_The footsteps got nearer and Harry noticed they were having a hushed argument. They were men's voices and he only heard two of them. _

_Then they came around to the other side of the couch. The first man he recognized from the mirror of Eris and his countless pictures of him; it was his dad, James Potter. The second man was the man from his earlier dream, Hes warm smile today was replaced with a worried expression. He looked stressed and the bags under his eyes suggested that he had not slept much recently._

_"James," he said quietly, as if by being quiet the other man would lisen to him, "James please! Just let Dumbledore!"_

_"No, I don't trust him as much as I trust you," James said warily, "Lily and I would both feel so much safer if it was you." _

_"But James!" The man said, his voice starting to rise, "what if they kill me? Or toture me? What will happen to you?!? Think about that! About Lily and Harry! James for the love of god, Please!"_

_"Sirius, you don't understand," James answered. Harry felt his heart freeze. _Surely not? Please, please if there is a god, NO! Sirius Black?!? NO!!! It is impossible!...Maybe he wasn't Black? _Harry hoped suddenly. _Maybe it's just a coincidence? _Harry shuddered inside anyway. His baby verson, however, smiled and gurgled happily at the mention of the man _-Sirius- _Harry mentaly corrected himself, Meanwhile his father continued. "I can't, won't, let anyone else be my secret keeper!" _

_"So, you'll trust me with the lives of you wife and son, not to mention youself?!?" _NO!!! _Harry thought. Though he wished with all his heart that Sirius wasn't Black, He still didn't want this to be the reason his parents has died. _

But that would make sence wouldn't it? _Said that traitorous voice in the back of his head, _They should be safe if they trust their lives are safe with him, but if he's Black....

_"Yes!" James practicaly shouted._

_"No!" Sirus answered, " No, James! God, please, please, lisen to me!" he sounded desperate at this point, "Anyone but me! Please! They'll know it was me. They'll get me and then kill you! Please James! Dumbledore,or Jenifer! God make it Petunia Dursley! But NOT me!"_

_"Sirius, I-" James began. _

_"Wait!" Sirius said exicitedly, "Peter!"_

_"I..." James was momentarly stunned, then he looked thoughtrful. "ya know, that might work..."  
"It's perfect!" Sirius said in a rush, "They'll think it's me! Peter will protect you!" _

_"Okay," James agreed hesitently, "but we should tell Remus."_

_ "No," said Sirius, slightly forceful, "this has to be just between you, me, lily, and Peter."_

_James' hazle eyes held Sirius' pale gray ones for several moments before he sighed and droped his gaze. "Fine..."_

_Sirius' face broke into a huge smile. "Thanks," he said_

_**----------------- REALITY------------------**_

**"**NO!" Harry cried, waking up suddenly and nearly falling out of bed.

**Sorry it's kinda short... I'll try to keep the future chapters at a decent length.**

**...Oh yeah, err, if you are wondering who Jenifer is don't... she's my charactor,(No relation to my Muse) and she isn't in most of my fanfics.....she might end up in this one though....**


	3. Chapter 3: Unseen Complication

PLEASE READ THE A/N BELOW

_******************************_

_Okay…. I feel really bad because it annoys me to no end when a writer says they are going to post and then they disappear for like, forever….. I'm really, really, really sorry, I feel really, really, really bad…… to make a long story short, my mum told me that she was going to ground me until summer and I didn't take her seriously……… she usually doesn't, but this time she actually meant it and she grounded me from EVERYTHING, including any writing that didn't have to do with school and going on the internet. I'm here again and I'll try to post as much as possible, but summer is kind of crazy this year so, no guarantees… again I'm really, really, really, really sorry…….._

Disclaimer: Everything belongs to the all mighty and powerful J.K Rowling.... and her minions.... because the magic of a story is a gift from the author to the readers.... and J.K. Rowling has given the world a perfect gift....... PERFECT!!!!!...... well, other than the fact that the beautiful, wonderful, perfect, amazing and charming Sirius Black died (Na, just kidding, I think that all good stories should have some characters die…especially if there is a war going on in the story because it is more realistic that way…..but I'm sad anyway)..... = ( … * tears*....... and this story is my gift to the readers so really, none of this is mine.

Unseen Complication

The small clearing was silent except for the gentle breeze and the soft gurgle coming from a small brook running through it. A large rock covered in plush moss rested on the water's edge. Beneath it a large black dog slept, oblivious to his tranquil surroundings. His eyelids fluttered and he whined softly pawing at the earth.

**---------- DREAM---------**

_He was running through the forest, trying to get as far away from the footsteps behind him as possible. He didn't know who they were but he did know two things. First, he was in big trouble if they caught him. Second, they knew who he was._

But how?_ he thought, _they didn't know when I was in Azkaban…

_He continued to dash through the underbrush, jumping over fallen logs, darting through trees and carving a path through the lower plant life, but he was tiring fast and knew that if something didn't happen soon then they would catch him._

_He cut his paw on a rock_. I've got to stop_, he though, _but first I've got to somehow lose them.

_He tried a more zigzagging path but the footsteps only got closer and closer. He made a running jump across a brook and luckily got to the other side safely. The people following him had no such luck._

Yes! Finally, now I've just got to get back to my clearing and-

_Padfoot skidded to a halt and stared ahead of him. Apparently he hadn't lost all of his pursers at the brook. The figure was in the volumous shadow of the oak tree behind him so Padfoot couldn't see his face. He slowly walked towards the stunned dog in front of him._

Run!_ Padfoot's mind yelled at him_, run now or you're done for! _His feet wouldn't listen to his head at all. He just stood there like a deer caught in a headlight._

_The figure, meanwhile, had gotten closer and finally stepped out of the shadows. Padfoot looked up at him in horror._

_His light brown hair fell slightly into his gleaming gold eyes. He was smiling at Padfoot but in wasn't an oh-I'm-so-glad-to-see-you smile it was an I-just-did-something-to-make-your-life-terrible smile._

_"Hello, Padfoot," Remus said quietly," long time no see."_

_**---------- REALITY------------**_

Sirius woke up panting like he had run a marathon. Sometime while he was dreaming he had changed back to his human form. His mind was racing almost as fast as his heart. _Why, why, why, why am I such an idiot! Why didn't I think of the possibility of Remus telling them about my animagus form!... What do I do if he is telling them right now?!_

Now that he really thought about it, it didn't make any sense for them not to know he was an animagus. What reason did Remus have for keeping it a secret? He might have believed that it didn't make a difference when Sirius was sent to Azkaban but now that Sirius was loose, not to mention supposedly after Harry, how long would it take Remus to realize that that was how Sirius was hiding and getting into the school? How long would it take him to find Sirius and send him back to Azkaban?... Well, either that or he would avenge James and Lily personally...

Either way, unless Remus kept quiet, Sirius was as good as caught. Unless..... Sirius could find a way to make him keep quiet.............

** ---------------- ---------------- ---------------- ----------------**

"Harry? whaz wrong?" Ron asked sleepily from the other side of the dorm.

"I was having this dream and -" _Wait,_ Harry thought_, either he'll think I'm crazy or.... oh, never mind, no 'or', he'll just think I'm completely bonkers._

" And?" Ron prompted..... He was looking at Harry like he was questioning his sanity.

" I - oh- errr- It was just a nightmare, never mind." Harry said quickly.

" Are you sure your okay? You were yelling 'NO' really loudly and now you're acting all weird...."

" Just go back to sleep Ron," Harry sighed, " I'm fine, really, it was just a bad dream." He shuddered, " a REALLY bad dream."

Ron sat down on the edge of his bed. He looked over at Harry, eyes full of concern. He put his elbow on his knee and his chin in his hand. " Okay..." he said hesitantly

"_**I'm**_ fine..." Harry said thinking of the man- Black - _wait, no, Sirius. _Thinking of the laughing, vivacious man from his resent dreams and then of the pale, corpse-like murderer from the papers. How was it possible that they were the same person?

" What do you mean?" Ron asked confused. Who are you worried about? Lupin? 'Cause I'm sure he'll be fine." Ron added the last part rather quickly.

Harry sighed. " No, someone else..... It really doesn't matter." _But it does matter, _said a small voice in his head, _it matters a lot_.

" Look Ron, I'll be okay, just go back to sleep."

Ron rubbed his eyes tiredly and climbed onto his bed. He pulled the comforter down, plumped the pillow and drew the hangings closed.

Harry lay alone in dark for the while thinking. The dream had felt extremely real…but… It couldn't be. It just made no sense. Even if the first dream had been real, the second one couldn't be. _Yeah, that's it,_ Harry told himself, _I was thinking too much about Sirius Black and the dream, so my mind linked them while I slept_. It seemed like a reasonable explanation… well kind of. _Which means that I still have no Idea who the guy from my dream is. But tonight I just had a nightmare… nothing to worry about…. I hope. _

** ---------------- ---------------- ---------------- ----------------**

Sirius paced around his clearing. He hadn't gotten back to sleep and it was now the wee hours of the morning. After long contemplation Sirius had decided on several things.

**One:** Remus hadn't told anyone that Sirius was an illegal animagus, and he probably wouldn't.

**Two: **The reason was that Remus wanted revenge; personal revenge, not just to see Sirius locked up or given to the dementors.

**Three:** There was no way Remus would listen to anything Sirius said.

**Four:** Remus would find Sirius before Sirius caught Peter.

**Five:** Sirius probably shouldn't rely on his conviction that Remus wouldn't tell people his secret because Sirius obviously was a bad judge of what his friends would and wouldn't do.

**Six:** Convincing a Kelpie to turn into a Pegasus and fly Sirius to Norway in order to find a muggle magician that would be willing to hypnotize Remus so that he would forget everything is a bad idea.

**Seven:** The other fifteen plans are worse.

**Eight:** The only solution is to kidnap Remus.


	4. Chapter 4: The Best Laid Plans

**Disclaimer: Everything belongs to the all mighty and powerful J.K Rowling, knowledge belongs to Minerva and it is currently 5:50 am so I am going to sleep. **

**Marlicat you are really a wonderful person. **

The Best Laid Plans

Fred and George peeked down the corridor to where Lee was keeping watch. It wasn't that they didn't trust him, per say, but Percy had really started to crack down on rules lately and they definitely didn't want to be on the wrong end of that. Especially when this particular transgression involved their dear brother Ron and the two yellow canaries currently clamped tightly in George's hands.

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_A plan, a plan was exactly what he needed. Now all he had to do was dust the cobwebs from his brain and try to think of one. _

...

...

...

_If he was Remus he would already have a plan A, B, C, D and possibly E by now... Though, if he was Remus, he would have also found all the microscopic holes in said plans and spent twice as much time worrying over them. _

..

_And if he was Remus he would be trying to kidnap himself, so this would all be a whole lot easier... Assuming of course, that Remus would want to kidnap himself. Always pegged him as smarter than that. _

_.._

.

..

_If he was James he would have said screw plans, those are for sissies._

_... _

Sirius Black sat with is back to a tall oak tree, burying his head in his hands and sighed for perhaps the twentieth time that morning. Thinking had really never been his forte. In the past he had only ever needed to rely on his charm and quick wits to get him out of a given situation. There had been few occasions where he needed to stop and actually solve an issue. _Maybe that's the key._ _Maybe thinking is in fact just an exercise in futility and his old way was inherently better._ _He never needed plans before, right?_

The man sunk closer to the trunk of the tree and signed once more. _And maybe I could get away with not having a plan in the past because I wasn't a wanted criminal... or a walking skeleton... or completely friendless. _

_And maybe, before I let this pity-party progress any longer, a walk would be nice. _

Black slowly got up from his resting place and stretched his gangly limbs above his head. After sluggishly looking around him as if searching for a path, and groaning when he realized that _of course_ there wasn't one, he headed into the woods in what he determined was a vaguely hogwartsish direction.

_Fresh air is supposed to be good for you, right? _

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'Defiantly' didn't want to be on Percy's bad side was an understatement. For some reason their oh-so stuck-up brother was having a bad day. Let it not be thought that this had anything to do with the water the twins may or may not have pored over him this morning as a wake up call. It also had no correlation with that charms homework that mysteriously moved from Percy's desk to the dustiest corner of the forbidden section of the library this morning. Really Percy should be more careful with things like that. The point in this, of course, being that Percy should be avoided at all costs.

Fred ducked as a heavy book flew through the air where his head had been seconds before and continued running. The book's flight ended with a sickening thud against the wall behind him. _Well, _he mentally corrected himself, _should have been avoided at any rate. _

George was several steps ahead of him when he turned sharply to the left and pulled open a non-descript wood door. Fred was barely though the doorway when his twin slammed the door shut behind them and tugged him down what was thankfully another long corridor. George always was a smart cookie, studying the map and stuff, maybe this would buy them some time.

_Or_, he thought as he glanced behind him at the burst of flames that was making short work of the flimsy door that separated him from his very upset elder sibling, _not._

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Sirius roamed aimlessly along the edge of the Forbidden Forest. At first it had felt good to get out of his little hollow, you know get his blood pumping and all that, but now he was just restless. As nice as it was to take a break from thinking, not having a plan was making him a little anxious. And the thought had recently crossed his mind that when he did manage to come up with a plan to get Remus he would not only have to pull it off, he was also have to be able get in and out with out alerting teachers or *_shudder*_ dementors.

_About time to head back and pull out the drawing board again_. He kicked a small rock from the path in front of him and watched as it clattered against a trunk. He smirked. _Well, at least I know that no matter how bad things get, I can still always take my anger out on innocent undergrowth. _

Sirius started to lazily steer his meander back in the direction of his safe haven. He hadn't gotten more than a handful of steps away from the edge of the forest when faint voices sounded from behind him. Curious, he turned back the way he came.

He was almost past the last tree when he saw several figures running across the lawn like the devil was after them. It took him a moment to process that they were headed directly toward him and that he was in fact in plain view. He swore and quickly darted behind the tree to his left, praying to every god he knew and some he didn't that they didn't see him.

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"-and to think I just"-_pant_- "told Dumbledore last week that you two were going to"-_pant_-"to turn over a new leaf! No more ridiculous bids for attention!"-_pant- _"No more endangering your fellow students for no good reason."-_pant_- "But, of course, you have to prove me wrong! Our own brother of all people! Do you two have no sense? How"- _pant_- "how do you think internal discord make our family look!?", Here the speaker paused his triad to calm his breathing before he suddenly jerked his head up as if he just remembered something and yelled, "And animal cruelty to top it off!"

Someone needed to tell Percy that he needs to concentrate more on running during a chase scene and less on making a fool out of himself with a big vocabulary. Unfortunately, Fred felt like air should be used for breathing and energy should be used for running under this particular set of circumstances. Thankfully, George was there to say it for him.

"F-Frivolus?!" Percy screeched from several feet behind them.

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After determining that by some miracle the boys running pell-mell toward him had not in fact spotted him, Sirius let out the breath he had been holding. He really should be more careful in the future. If he is spotted this close to the castle it will cause another stir and make his target even more unreachable. And he really should not compromise his hiding place by trying to find out what they are up to. He's just not that curious or that stupid.

Really.

Sirius slowly leaned out from behind the tree until the three boys were in his line of sight. One of them was searching the forest around him, turning his head from one way to the other so fast it had to hurt and giving his surroundings a downright vicious glare. The other two boys, who Sirius quickly noted had to be twins, where huddled behind a tree less then ten feet from Sirius's own hiding place. They both had their eyes shut tight and their fingers crossed... and on closer inspection they both appeared to be attempting to hold back laughter.

There was tense silence for several seconds. The twins struggled to not laugh, the other boy searched and Sirius found himself thinking that being found by a stupid kid who wasn't even looking for him would be a rather sad way to get caught. Then as quickly as it started the moment passed; one of the twins didn't quite manage to hold back a chuckle, which of course had the angry one on their hiding place in seconds. With some rambunctious laughter and an unhealthy amount of yelling their chase continued back toward the castle and away from the dangers of the forest.

Sirius waited for a few seconds before forgoing his hiding place and once again trudging back to his hollow. This time he was a little more appreciative of the fact that he still had the freedom to do that. Really though, he hadn't expected anyone to venture so far outside of the safety of the castle after the Halloween incident. _How stupid did those kids have to be? They were loud enough that he would have to be deaf to not know where they were and they were obviously not paying attention to their surroundings_._ Did they want the crazy mass murderer to get them? And it couldn't be easy for the teachers to have to deal with childish antics and watch every corner of the castle for Black at the same time. What were they-... well, hello plan. _

And like that the cogs in his head started to turn.


End file.
